In Part One this tutorial, I start off with creating the neon lightbulb tubes, proceeding on to the wire mesh/cage by creating a single segment, and using the Array modifier to duplicate it around to surround the bulbs. Then we create the main housing of the bug zapper, complete with safety slats , create the power cord, and the chain to hang it from.
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Hi this doesn’t appear to work for me on either Firefox or opera little bit of scripting error or something. I look forward to killing bugs with blender soon lol love the site tho and always appreciate your very good work guys!
works now for me can’t wait for part 2!
Instead of clicking edge slide, couldn’t you select the vertice’s you wanted to move and drag up with the transform widget?
you could, but that way, it will be messy in more complex shapes since you’ll be going towards x,y,z straight instead of following the natural shape.
I love how he starts speaking really fast for the first 5 seconds and then slows down for the rest of the video. xD
It’s not working with the array modifer,when I add the empty it distorts my array’s really bad.
Chances are you can solve this by selecting the object that has the array modifier on it and pressing CTRL + A > Apply Scale.
-Jonathan
Oh, awesome! Thanks!
Same problem here.
That’s a cool tutorial.
Bugs Life here I come!
You can spare a lot of edge sliding, if you add only two instead of three cuts and immediatly after adding scale them along their perpendicular axis. If you want you can add the middle cut then as last.
Besides the time advantage this would also keep symmetry.
Hey David great tutorial, but do u think u guys can make a tutorial on switching scenes during an animation? i hope its not too much to ask. And also I’m having trouble of learning where to start and end in blender. I know u guys have sumthing like that already but its very general as far as where to start and end. For example it doesnt tell u wen to learn the particle system. Can u tell me in a very detailed message where to start and end. I’m kinda self teaching myself so im kinda clueless. If u cant I’d like to thank u guys anyway for the great tuts
Aloha!
I’m not David, but I can give you some tips on how I went about learning Blender. =) When I started out with Blender I mainly did two things:
- Speed Modeling Competitions
- Personal Projects
Speed Modeling Competitions (SMCs) are great for quickly mastering the basic modeling and topology skills, because you’re forced to think out your model quickly and then act on it. They’re a ton of fun to do as well! The Blender community tends to hang out on IRC at #smc on irc.freenode.net.
Personal projects will allow you to have something to focus on and let you find your ‘problem areas’ in a non-stressful work-environment. Let’s say you’re working on a house for instance. Once you get to the bathroom, you’ll probably want to install a mirror and perhaps a glass for the toothbrush near the sink. This would be then be the point where you’d start looking into glass materials, reflection and transparency. Perhaps you also want some dynamic water in the sink, so you could also take that opportunity to get to know fluid sims. I’ve always felt that this is the most natural way of learning.
Of course in my example a house would be a pretty big undertaking, but it works the same for smaller scenes/ objects. After some time, just try and get out of your comfort zone as much as possible, so that you’ll find as many different techniques as you can. =)
Hope this helped!
-Patrick
(Sorry for hijacking the comment section for a bit Dave!!)
Hi!,
I’m not ChosenSavior but I want to say thanks for the answer.
Is there a forum or something like that with Blender SMCs? Don’t like hanging out on IRC.
I think you are right regarding personal projects. This is how I’ve learned Programming in different languages. Starts with something simple and then try to challenge myself with different things that may not be actually needed for the project I’m working on but good to learn nevertheless. I’m doing the same with Blender right now.
Hey Lee,
Exactly! Always try and find opportunities to learn new things where you can; especially in personal projects! =) (This is actually how I’m learning AJAX and Java at the moment as well.)
As for the SMCs: BlenderArtists does have a subforum for it, but it’s used in conjunction with IRC. Basically, someone sets a start- and end-time, along with a topic. After the time’s up a bot send you a unique upload link for your render. All entries are then automatically posted on the BA forum, along with a poll so people can vote on their favorite.
Thanks!
Thx Patrick. Your advice did help
When you worked out the 30 degree rotation on the electric cage bit you were right but the ends only rotate 15 degrees because you have half the rotation in each end so the rotation of the empty would be 30 degrees (you went 30.02 by eye which is close enough)
Hi Dave! One little comment. The Neon lights are U-shaped.
Hi, David Ward
Thanks for another interesting tutorial.
I choose this Bug Zapper to model.
Link
http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=gallery%3Ahaqzaf%2F9410305#/d3ag1l0
Muy buenos tutoriales me encanta la página pero mucho no veo uno de visualización arquitectónica…great site its in my favorites but long time ago no see one about blender 2.5 and architecture and maybe plus luxrender please its a request… Well congratulations for the site anyways i love it
Making separate objects and arraying them rather than duplicating them (ie, for the wire mesh and slats) would have created a more uniform result. Alternatively, duplicating them and holding control to constrain to fixed intervals would have been better.
I believe the circle at the top had the odd twist because you moved it away from the origin. This is something I noticed a lot in not only this tutorial, but others as well. If the object did not rely upon an array or mirror modifier for symmetry, you would allow yourself to move the mesh away from the origin while in edit mode. Something I always do why modeling is keep the mesh centered around the origin at all times and then move it into position while in object mode. This keeps the project as a whole easier to work with.
The same can be said, once again, for snapping to the grid. Unless I’m modeling something organic or very complex, I never approximate positions by scaling by just clicking and dragging. I always use ctrl to snap to the grid or type in specific measurements which will help me line things up later (move something so the vertices line up and then remove doubles). While I admit this seems kinda anal, I think my models come out much better as a result. People may not notice the difference, but I know it’s there, and It matters to me, the modeler.
That said though, over all, another great tutorial. I always enjoy watching these. Looking forward to the texturing, as this is where I have issues.
Erik
why when I rotate the empty the hole thing rotates like if it was one object and doesn’t curve like it should???
That was pretty cool. Can’t wait to do part II.
Hi Jonathan, first of all: nice tutotorial, and I want you to know that we are all appreciating your effort and help for the comunity.
One thing tough regarding the modelling of the inner cage… I see that you had model one row top-to bottom. What I have used instead was:
1. model a single “cross” piece
2. make the grid using two arrays modfiers (x and z)
3. close them cage using the curve modifier – leaned that from your barell tutorial
Hope this helps, as an alternative
Cheers!
Hi !
I’ve a problem : I’m french so I understand most of the tutorial but there is one thing I can’t hear well enought, It’s around 17:26 when you give the tip to make all rotate around the 3D cursor u_u I hear something like ” Ctrl + cama ” x)
By the way, It’s been a year ago since I’ve discovered your website and I’m alway surprised to see how good and how interesting your tutorials are
Thank you very much for everything you do to teach us Blender
( Sorry for the english mistakes you’ll maybe find
)
to rotate around the 3d cursor, you just press the Period (“.”) key; then to rotate around the median point, you press ctrl+comma
thanks for the tutorial, i was drawn to making this, aside from the simplicity, was the lighting i saw on the tutorial’s part 2 icon. first time i used array thank you.
Great tutorial! I’m just wondering how to move the origin point freely again because i messed up when i was placing it. please reply! thanks
oops scratch that Q I pressed tab by accident
Why when I use the “empty” array of objects will be out of shape?
On the base piece my creases are all messed up and look black after I extrude it up! I tried messing around like you did after turning clipping off but I can’t figure out exactly what you did and it’s not working for me.. this is really frustrating!